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ARS VIVENDI (ART OF LIVING) |
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CHAPTER 2: WATER, LIGHT, AND DIET CAUSE AND EFFECT IN DISEASE IN the early stages of mental development disease is considered to be the work of evil spirits, who delight in torturing helpless mortals. Gradually this view is modified into the belief that the gods inflict ill-health upon man as a punishment for disobedience to their commands. In a still higher stage of development man begins to understand the operation of cause and effect, and at last to realise that every event is subject to the operation of invariable law. From the complexity of the phenomena presented in the various phases of health and disease, and the consequent difficulty in tracing the operation of cause and effect, it has taken thousands of years of constant development for the human mind to grasp the notion that the action of law is invariable within the domain of bodily health, just as in any other department of Nature. The physical and chemical laws are much easier to understand than the laws of vitality. As an instance, let us, take a person suddenly attacked with a stroke of paralysis. The previous day he might have presented the appearance of sound health, and now lies a helpless mass, devoid of sensibility and power of movement. The change is appalling, and well may appear to deride any attempt at bringing the phenomena of health and disease within the dominion of law. But, in reality, what has happened? Merely the culmination of a process which had been going on for months, and perhaps years, within the organism. This process could be detected by the keen and practised eye, and its inevitable result predicted with as much certainty as the movement of a star by the astronomer. But the process which culminated in paralysis was much more complex than the movement of the star, inasmuch as the individual might have postponed or entirely prevented the evil day by a change of habits, thus calling into operation other forces to counteract the downward movement. But, left to itself, it could have ended only in one way. The difficulty in understanding the presence of fixed law in all the phenomena of health is due not to any defect in the action of Law, but to the faulty habit of reasoning and want of observation on the part of the mind. How very common such a remark as the following: "I have done so and so, but I haven't found any ill effects from it. I feel as strong now as ever before in my life." The mistake of such a mode of reasoning is fatal, because the great majority of the various forms of disease -- of course disease is only one -- are of insidious growth, of imperceptible progress. Nature is long-suffering, gives long credit, but never forgets the debt you incur. At the moment, perhaps, when you are least prepared, she will demand payment with a voice void of pity and of mercy. This truth is expressed in a very dramatic form by the wise man of antiquity: -- "Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes; but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment." To give a practical illustration. Suppose you have a certain sum at your banker's which with care and economy will last a lifetime. Draw larger cheques than your capital can stand, and the day will come when you wake up a bankrupt. If you look at the various cheques by themselves, not a single one could ruin you, but make a simple sum in addition and the explanation is easy. GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH Taking these simple truths into consideration, everyone must see that for the maintenance of bodily health, the mind must have an intelligent grasp of certain fixed principles. I do not mean it to be implied that an intimate acquaintance with Anatomy and Physiology is indispensable to the student of health. Indeed, the very opposite is so near the truth that I have often thought the reason why drug practitioners are such bad healers is that their mind is overwhelmed with details which serve no practical purpose whatever. Their whole training is based upon a wrong principle, and they have to unlearn a great deal of what they have crammed into their heads, hastily bolted, and therefore ill-digested. Having been taught to contemplate disease in all its hideous aspects, they hardly know what bodily vigour is, and, worst of all, their Power of Will, which is the leading factor in the cure of disease, is necessarily weakened by brooding over ghastly symptoms. The art of living in health is never learnt by poring over revolting details. If we were always conscious of the dangers incidental to swallowing a single morsel, we should be inclined to thank our stars every time this intricate operation was successfully performed. But we do swallow every day with consummate skill, and all the knowledge in the world will not enable us to do it any better. There is, then, on the one hand, a knowledge which, though valuable in itself and indispensable to the surgeon, is really unnecessary to practise with success the art of living in health; and. on the other hand, there is a knowledge which is not taught in any of the medical schools, and which is absolutely necessary to the student. These principles are of universal application, and upon their observance or nonobservance will depend the individual's success or failure in the art of preserving his health. WHAT NOT TO DO The first thing he must learn is what not to do. Somebody has said that the most important lesson in manners is to know what not to do. Whether or not that forms the rudiments of behaviour, it is most certainly the foundation of health. Don't take pills; don't take opening medicine; don't take tonics or stimulants; don't take more food than you really require -- that is the beginning of health. The habit of taking medicine has been so strong within the last few hundred years that it is very natural to ask, "What must I take?" And kind friends are always anxious that you should try what has worked such marvels with them. You are assured it can do you no harm, as Smith has been having it for weeks and is not dead yet, while Robinson lived several years after having first taken it. Nevertheless -- don't! Instead of asking yourself, "What must I take?" say simply, "What have I done, and what must I do?" The natural state of the organism is health. Self-preservation is the first law of Nature. Death is resisted to the very last, is fought step by step with unflinching determination, with unremitting vigilance, till every particle of energy is exhausted, till the struggle can no longer be prolonged. What we call "disease" is the irresistible impulse of Nature to protect her child to the very last moment. This aversion to succumb to the attack of Death is beautifully illustrated in the various stages of consumption. Like a brave and skilful general, Nature displays a consummate mastery of tactics even when she is on the losing side, and when the troops at her disposal -- the vitiated blood of the individual -- are scanty, ill-fed, incapable of exertion, and overpowered by the superiority of the enemy. This is what is vaguely termed the vis medicatrix naturae -- the recuperative force of Nature. It is the main factor to be taken into consideration in the treatment of disease. Treated with intelligence from the outset, fever can be managed not only with absolute safety, but -- what is meant to be by Nature -- advantage to the patient. All that Nature asks is cooperation on the part of the patient and his professed ally, and a certain amount of care in placing the body under the best conditions for putting forth its curative energies. This is the only method of cure that has the smallest pretence to be called "scientific," drug medication being, at its best, only a temporary makeshift, a plausible make-believe that is apt to delude both doctor and patient. "Throw physic to the dogs, I'll none of it," is the corner-stone on which rests the edifice of health. It is sometimes objected by stupid or thoughtless people that to do so-and-so is too much trouble, while to take medicine and have done with it is the easiest thing in the world. To such there is only one answer: If you value health, you will consider nothing that is necessary for your well-being as a trouble. If you are foolish enough to squander your inheritance for not even a tasty mess of pottage, but a nauseous dose of medicine -- well, do it, and take the consequences. We are now sufficiently experienced in the ways of health and disease to say with absolute confidence, "This do, and thou shalt live; this fail to do, and thou shalt suffer." HYDROPATHY, OR THE WATER CURE The bitter and rancorous opposition presented by medical men to the Water Cure would seem to suggest that the system inaugurated by Vincent Priessnitz in the early part of the last century was a complete innovation on the ideas of the past. But such is not the case: for the use of water had been recommended and practised in various countries and in various ages by men who had attained a knowledge of the art of preserving health. Pythagoras, in his famous School of Philosophy, at Crotona in Italy, enjoined the use of cold bathing to his disciples as the best method of acquiring mental and bodily vigour. The Egyptian priests largely employed water as one of the chief remedies for the cure of disease; whilst the ceremonial of the Hebrew religion was intimately associated with the maintenance of bodily health by means of frequent ablutions and bathing. Hippocrates, who is styled the "Father of Rational Medicine," used water and friction in the treatment of the most serious complaints. Pliny, in speaking of Musa, who cured Horace by means of cold water, said he put an end to drug-taking; and the same writer mentions Charmis, who made a great sensation at Rome by the extraordinary cures effected with water. Galen, a renowned physician of the second century, recommended cold bathing to the healthy, as well as to patients' attacked with fever. Michael Savonarola, an Italian doctor in the fifteenth century, recommended cold water in gout, ophthalmia, and hemorrhages: Cardanus, of Pavia, complained that the doctors in his time made so little use of water in the cure of gout. Van der Heyden, in a work published in 1624, states that during an epidemic of dysentery he cured hundreds of persons with water, and added that during a long practice of fifty years the best cures he ever effected were by means of water. Sir John Floyer published a book in 1702, showing how fevers were to be cured by water. Currie, of Liverpool, published, in 1797, a work on the use of water, and attained great success in its private application. The Rev. John Wesley published a work in 1747, which went through thirty-four editions, in which he strongly deprecates the manner in which drugs were imposed upon mankind, the mysteries with which medicine is surrounded, and the interested conduct of medical men. "The common method of compounding medicines," he truly writes, "can never be reconciled to common sense. Experience shows that one thing -- water -- will cure most disorders at least as well as twenty put together. Then why add the other nineteen? Only to swell the apothecary's bill! Nay, possibly on purpose to prolong the distemper, that the doctor and he may divide the spoil." Dr. Macartney, in lectures at Trinity College, Dublin, in 1826, declared that "if men knew how to use water so as to elicit all the remedial results which it is capable of producing, it would be worth all the other remedies put together." From the foregoing it will be seen that the value of water in the treatment of disease had been widely known before the advent of Vincent Priessnitz, of Grafenberg, Silesia, Austria, who established the use of water on a systematic basis which entitled it to the consideration of being by far the most scientific method of treating most of the ailments that flesh is heir to. He opened his establishment about 1826, from which time till his death invalids of all nationalities flocked to undergo the "Cold Water Cure," as it was enthusiastically but somewhat erroneously called. Since the time of Priessnitz the Water Cure has been domesticated in England by Wilson, Gully, Johnson, Balbirnie, Smedley, etc.; in Ireland by Barter; and on the Continent by several, notably Kneipp, the Bavarian priest. Within the limits of the present volume it is not necessary to give a detailed account of the various baths and processes of Hydrotherapeutics, my aim being more to give a general idea of the most serviceable method of maintaining average health. When a person has seriously declined in the scale of health, as a general rule, he or she requires to be guided back to vigour by the firm hand and dominant mind of a master of the art. The Water Cure is by no means, as is often erroneously supposed, an exclusive use of cold water, nor does the expression "shivering in cold sheets" convey an adequate impression of the Full Pack. Nor, again, has the rich man any advantage over his poorer brother in commanding a greater variety of bathing apparatus. The important thing is to try to grasp the principle of the cure. An intelligent use of a watering-can, or a wash-tub, is of far greater service than an indiscriminate resort to the various "needle spray," "ascending douche," "wave bath," and other mysterious and imposing varieties of applying water, hot or cold, to the body. Water after all, is only a means to an end, and the individual must treat it as such. HOT FOMENTATION Hot fomentations, applied over the region of stomach, liver, and bowels, three or four times weekly, for one hour, are of great use in indigestion and all chronic cases. They are also invaluable when applied to any part of the body for the relief of pain. A folded piece of flannel is wrung tightly out of hot water, and renewed when getting cold. The best method of taking stomach fomentations is in the evening, at bedtime. First spread a folded blanket across the bed, lie down on the blanket, have the flannel applied, draw the blanket over, and put on top a hot water bottle or fomenting can, which will keep the flannel hot as long as desired. Be very careful, on removing the flannel, to sponge well the fomented part with cool or cold water. THE COMPRESS This is a piece of linen or cotton wrung out of cold or tepid water, and covered with dry flannel and macintosh or oiled silk. It can be applied to any part of the body, and when worn as a waist bandage for two or three hours at a time, or kept on all night in bed, renders great service to the liver and organs of digestion. For rheumatic or gouty joints, sore throats, bronchitis, lumbago, sciatica, its constant use (renewed every two or three hours) is strongly to be recommended. The part to which the compress is applied should be well sponged with cool or cold water every time it is removed. THE HALF PACK This is a larger compress than the waist bandage, and is done as follows: -- Lay a piece of macintosh across the bed. Fold a blanket over this: then fold a sheet, wrung out of cold or tepid water, sufficiently wide to cover the trunk from armpits to thigh. Lie down, and have the sheet drawn over the body, then the blanket and the macintosh. The neater and tighter it is done the better. Duration of half pack, from one to three hours, followed by vigorous sponging or a bath. THE FULL PACK This envelops the whole body from feet to neck. As the success of the pack to a very large extent depends upon the manner it is done, too great care cannot be exercised in its preparation. The best way for persons in average health is to take a brisk walk, undress quickly, and have the pack in readiness to jump into it. It is advisable to lay a large piece of macintosh on the mattress, over this place three or four pairs of blankets (more in cold than in warm weather), and on top of all the full sheet wrung tightly out of cold or tepid water. Wrap round quickly, first sheet, then blanket, lastly macintosh, so that in a few seconds the "packee" resembles nothing so much as a dignified mummy. If the feet are not comfortably warm, put a hot water bottle to them. In from ten to twenty minutes the "packee" should feel warmly comfortable, and in about half an hour, should the operation have been properly done, a most soothing and delightful sensation will come over him, and he will agree with Lord Lytton in describing the full pack as "the magic girdle which soothes pain"; and, even as Sancho Panza blessed the man who invented sleep, so will he bless the man -- Vincent Priessnitz -- who invented the pack. For fevers, and all conditions of the body in which the skin is hot and dry, the pack is a sovereign remedy. Taken once a week, or once a fortnight, the business man, with hot and aching brain, would find the full pack the best and truest friend he ever had. It must always be followed by the cold or tepid bath. THE FOOT BATH This is very simple to take. It consists in keeping the feet in water for a certain length of time. In headaches, neuralgia, and cold feet it is very valuable. The hot foot bath for ten or fifteen minutes on going to bed will often cause refreshing sleep when every drug has been given up as useless. For poor circulation, first of all take a sharp walk, then put the feet in a few inches of cold water for two or three minutes, dry quickly, and take another sharp walk till the feet are in a glow. This regularly repeated will effectually cure cold feet. THE SITZ BATH This is more powerful, both as a derivative and a tonic, than the foot bath. It consists in sitting down in water of a depth of two to six inches, for a certain length of time, according to the object desired. It strengthens the whole pelvic region, cures constipation, piles, and most of the diseases women are subject to, whilst its effect on the throat, chest, stomach, and brain is equally powerful and curative. The cold sitz for five to ten minutes is tonic, while the warm or tepid sitz for fifteen to thirty minutes is sedative. THE SHALLOW BATH This is perhaps the bath most generally used. It can be taken with advantage every morning, and the temperature can be varied to suit individual taste. For daily use as a morning refresher it had better be taken quite cold, or, in depth of winter and when the bather is not robust, with the chill taken off. Depth of water, only enough to cover the lower extremities and lower part of spine when the legs are stretched out at full length. It is advisable to rub legs and feet briskly in water, and to sponge upper part of body, with exception of the hair, which should not, as a rule, be wetted more than once a week. Duration of bath, a few minutes, according to individual taste. THE HOT FULL BATH This had better be taken about once a week, with plenty of soap and friction. The water should always be cooled down before the bather comes out. THE HOT AIR, VAPOUR, TURKISH BATHS The object of these baths is to thoroughly open the pores of the skin, and thus promote cutaneous transpiration, which is liable to be checked by want of exercise, confinement in close and badly-ventilated rooms, etc. The importance of an active skin in the maintenance of health as well as the cure of disease cannot be overestimated. When the skin fails to do the work assigned to it, the liver and kidneys feel the pressure of overwork, and the lungs are very liable to become diseased. The skin plays a leading part in consumption and cancer. Treatment directed chiefly to the skin, as is the aim of the Water Cure, will effect wonders by oxygenating the blood and cleansing the body. Hydrophobia has been repeatedly cured by the hot-air bath. This has been proved beyond doubt by Buisson and others. CHROMOPATHY -- LIGHT AND COLOUR Light is the most glorious phenomenon of the external universe; it kindles into being the whole vegetable world, and is the source, direct or indirect, of all material life, not to speak of electricity and other forces. Pancoast, in his valuable work, "The True Science of Light," says -- "The laws of nature are all comprehended in the laws of light. Light is the source, the sustainer, the renewer of the Universe, and of all life therein. Light is the universal motor, the one prime source and cause of every motion and operation in and of the Universe -- motion and operation are life -- and hence is the fountain of life. Light was the secret and universal medicine of the ancients. With it they were enabled to cure the most inveterate diseases." In fact, Light is the greatest factor in our planetary existence, and were it to fail life would perish. It is a well-known fact that plant life, in its perfection, requires abundance of light. It is a very interesting experiment to compare the growth of two plants, sprung from seeds of the same kind and quality, one of which has scanty, the other abundant light. The difference in the leaves and flowers is striking. Equally important is light to the perfection of animal life. Compare two children -- one who lives in the country with abundance of light, and one who is brought up in a narrow street where the direct sunlight is seldom to be seen. Chromopathy is the art of healing disease by light and colour. For general purposes, nothing is so beneficial as the direct sunlight. The sun bath is far more used on the Continent than in England, mainly owing to the conditions being more favourable than in our climate. It consists in letting the rays of the sun play for a certain time upon the skin, whole or partially uncovered. As a rule, this must not apply to the head; but when the heat of the sun is not too powerful, as in spring, and late summer and autumn, great benefit will be derived by thoroughly tanning face and hair. It exercises a most beneficial influence upon the skin by rousing its dormant energies, which are often smothered by the habit of the people of cold climates of being too warmly clothed. The sunlight is composed of different colours -- red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. Judging from analogy of the variety of Nature, we might conclude, a priori, that there is a difference in the action of these colours from each other and from the sunlight as a whole. Take the two colours, red and blue. Common experience talks of red as a "warm colour." It is associated with warmth, as, for example, in the body, if we are warm our skin is more or less ruddy, partaking of the colour "red." "Blue," on the other hand, is a "cold" colour in ordinary language. If we are cold, the red disappears, and the blue predominates, with blue veins, finger-nails, etc. Chromopathy says that disease is a lack of equilibrium in the colours throughout the body. In chronic disease -- that is, in cases where the system has not enough force to throw off the disease, the blue predominates, and, therefore, must be counteracted by the warm colours -- red, yellow and orange. In acute diseases, such as inflammatory and other fevers, the red is predominant, and must be counteracted by the cold colours -- blue, indigo, and violet. For all conditions of violent excitability or acute mania, the cold or negative colours are indicated; for mental depression, melancholia, and similar conditions the warm or positive colours must be used. The best way of getting the desired rays is by means of coloured glass. Panes of red or blue glass can be inserted in an ordinary window, or a piece of glass can be inserted in a light frame and hung in front of the window when required. For general use this is the best method, as the glass can be affixed to any window and kept on for a certain length of time. As a rule, about two hours of the red or blue glass once a day will compose a "ray-bath." The cure of lupus and other affections by application of light is now an established fact. THE INFLUENCE OF MUSIC The influence of the "concord of sweet sounds" is very great both in health and disease. The well-known story of David playing the harp before King Saul, and driving away the "evil spirit" of Melancholia, shows that music was employed by the ancients in the treatment of nervous affections. Music, like colour, produces its effect by vibration of the subtle, all-pervading, and all- penetrating ether in which we live, move, and have our being. It is divided into the two great classes of (1) stimulating or rousing, (2) lowering or soothing. These finer forces of Nature, it is needless to say, are much more powerful and much less harmful in their effects than crude mineral drugs. DIET A great many worthy people are vastly concerned with "what to eat," while they consider the problem of "how to eat" as quite beneath their notice. And yet, perhaps, in the majority of cases, "how" is a far more pertinent inquiry than "what," for the stomach itself frequently puts a direct veto upon "what"; while it fails entirely to give the slightest hint to the dyspeptic as to the important point of how best to introduce the food to its notice. The victim of indigestion has an irresistible tendency to lay all the blame upon the stomach, and when all his efforts to coax it into decent activity have failed, he regards it as an ungrateful organ upon which kindness is thrown away. He therefore hurries over his meals as quickly as possible, and is heartily glad when the disagreeable function of eating is over; it never seems to strike him that the stomach demands the requisite conditions for the due performance of its work, and that if those conditions are violated, it is unreasonable to expect it to do that work in a satisfactory manner. The stomach is an organ more sinned against than sinning. HOW TO EAT 1. The animal machine is kept going by nerve-energy. Inasmuch as digestion means the transformation of the energy stored up in the food we take into the living force and nerve- energy, this process should be carried on in as perfect a manner as possible; otherwise the machine is deprived of the proper amount of driving force. The only stage in the process of digestion over which the individual may be said to have direct control is the first stage, the mechanical reduction and trituration of the crude solids of the food in the mouth, accompanied by insalivation. Saliva is one of the digestive fluids, and it may be taken as a rule that the more thoroughly insalivated a morsel is, the more easily will it be digested; whilst the less it is acted upon in the mouth, the less easily will it be digested. Therefore the primary rule of good digestion is thorough mastication. This implies that each morsel is worked upon in the mouth for a certain time -- say forty to fifty seconds -- before the stomach receives it. Food hastily bolted interferes most seriously with the action of the stomach itself, for each morsel as it is received undergoes a series of movements round its walls, to expose it thoroughly to the chemical action of the gastric juice. The mischief of rapid eating, therefore, is twofold: (1) it introduces into the stomach crude morsels which are not sufficiently prepared for chemical action, and act as strong irritants; (2) it disturbs the digestive effort of the stomach by not only giving it more work than it ought to have, but by actually preventing it from even doing that work. Therefore eat slowly and masticate thoroughly. 2. The mental state at the time of eating has an important effect upon digestion, by its action on the production of saliva. Worry, anxiety, or any violent emotion inhibits the secreto-motor nerves, and lessens the flow of saliva, while ease of mind and pleasurable feelings have a gently stimulating effect. Therefore, when eating, make it a rule to banish all violent emotions. The aim and object of eating is to supply you with the energy you require for the work you have to do in the world. 3. After a heavy meal, a certain amount of rest should be taken, to give the stomach the additional energy it requires for the important work it has in hand. Therefore immediately after eating, do not tax the brain or take violent exercise. WHAT TO EAT After solving the problem of "How to eat," the "What to eat" will, as a general rule, not turn out to be very troublesome. Considered from the standpoint of physiology, "food" is a substance that can be made to supply bodily energy, and contains nitrogen and carbon as essential elements. Nitrogen enters the body in proteid and leaves it in urea; carbon enters the body in fat and carbohydrates (sugar and starch), and leaves it in carbon dioxide. Gain or loss of nitrogen signifies gain or loss of flesh in the organism; gain or loss of carbon signifies gain or loss of fat. The balance of nutrition is kept when the income is equal to the expenditure of energy. Inasmuch as people vary enormously in size, temperament, occupation, and general conditions of life, it will be seen at once that it is a hopeless task to lay down a hard and fast rule of universal application. It does not follow that what will benefit one person will do the same good to another. Some thrive wonderfully well on vegetarianism, while others could not stand it, at all events in its present form, for any length of time without diminishing in weight and strength. On the whole, the diet most serviceable to man, and the most easily digested, is the ordinary mixed diet of meat and vegetables and the cereals. The golden rule, is strict moderation in eating, and still stricter moderation in drinking alcoholic liquors. The only cure for a host of diseased bodily conditions, such as gout, rheumatism, liver and kidney complaints, etc., is stern attention to diet. Too much nourishment is as bad as too little, for the digestive organs are prematurely worn out by the excessive labour imposed upon them. Count Cornaro, an Italian nobleman of the Middle Ages, was a wreck at forty through "riotous living." He turned over a new leaf, confined himself to a strict regimen and lived till past 100 in first-rate health, passing away peacefully and painlessly in his sleep. An occasional fast of varying duration, according to the bodily condition, is an excellent thing. But I deprecate all extremes and fads.
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